Monday, July 05, 2010

Good day to all! It's rained here all day long and quite frankly, I'm getting tired of it. I live in Florida, not some country where they have monsoon season. But that's neither here nor there, you came 'round for some Christmas music, and I've got some dilly pickles for you tonight. I don't even know where to start. How about with a record that I just bought a couple of hours ago, and which is rapidly becoming my favorite find of the season? It's The Jackie Davis Trio performing The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) from the LP Organistics (Kapp KL-1030, Mono, 1956). I don't know why I like it so much, but it's got that swingin' organ sound that would explode less than ten years later. I think you'll enjoy it. Track two is a bit of a shocker. How about Frank Sinatra conducting an orchestra performing a 'tone poem' called White, The Young At Heart? This is from the instrumental LP Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems Of Color (Capitol W375, Mono, 1956). Something about the sleigh bells in this one makes it sound all Christmassy to me, and I hope you think so as well. Up next is another organ track that swings quite a bit less than that leadoff track, it's Ray Colignon performing The Skaters (which you may recognize as The Skater's Waltz) from Skating Waltzes-Ray Colignon At The Hammond Organ (Harmony/Columbia HL 7275, Mono, 1960). It's certainly not the worst version that I've ever shared... Fourth is That Man Over There from Meredith Wilson's adaptation of Miracle On 34th Street called Here's Love, performed here by Edmundo Ros And His Orchestra from New Sounds Of Broadway (London PS 352, Stereo, 1964). Anything Christmas related from Mr. Ros is more than welcome here at the blog. Lastly I've got the first of several tracks from Hugo Winterhalter and his album A Season For My Beloved (ABC-Paramount ABCS-447, Stereo, 1963). I had no idea this even existed last year, then I found a mono copy. Some months later I found a second mono copy. And just last month in Ohio I stumbled across a stereo copy, and that's what you're getting tonight. As you might have guessed from the title, there are a number of seasonal tracks on this one, and the first one I'm sharing with you in the Claude Thornhill classic Snowfall. Mr. Winterhalter has been a favorite around the blog. I've shared his only full-length Christmas release with you before, as well as a single or two and a random track. All good stuff! I think that's it for the night. I'm sure you'll agree that it's a pretty good selection of stuff today, I hope you enjoy it. Here's the download link, and I'll see you all after work tomorrow.